What Is a Just Wage?

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TheOldColonel said:
Ok, sports fans! Let’s root for a comeback!
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This kind of highlights the evil of market worth, as opposed to true worth. Kicking a ball around should be something you do for fun in your spare time. But the madness is some of these players are paid millions. Yet people who contribute something useful to society are paid a pittance by comparison, teachers, doctors electricians, farm labourers.
 
KMC said:
If you look at the net margin for certain industries like grocery…net margin is around 3%.
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The Walton family of Walmart are worth about $150 billion between them. There must be a million or so workers who would benefit from a pay rise, why the greed?
 
Theo520 said:
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DarkLight:
I think that’s actually a real issue. I know a lot of our cheap products are obtained by denying just treatment to those working abroad to produce goods for us.
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How do you know this?

Have you visited any of these places abroad, or are you just reciting talking points?

Also, how exactly do we deny them just treatment?
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Christian charities like Cafod and Fair Trade; often talk about the need for justice for low income families.
 
Eric_Hyom said:
Christian charities like Cafod and Fair Trade; often talk about the need for justice for low income families.
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So you can’t confirm we are denying just treatment to these people working abroad.

If you want to improve the situation of poor people abroad, you need to get involved in their local politics
 
Socrates92 said:
Are lottery winnings also evil in your mind?
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Often it is the poorer people who need to win, they pay for lottery tickets with money they possibly cannot afford to loose. More than a million people have to loose a £1, in order for one person to win a million. I think the UK lottery odds of winning the top prize is around fourteen million to one.

I think the lottery is evil for all those who loose money they can’t afford to loose. You hear stories of people who do not deserve to win live the playboy lifestyle. I often hear about people who say, if they won, they would help other people. But they are then helping people with money that others have lost.

Just my 2c
 
But your prior post said the only formula to earn a billion is to underpay and overcharge. If net margin is 3%, is that overcharging?

Regarding the Walton’s specifically, they own a huge percentage in stock of one of the largest companies on the planet. I didn’t find any Walton family members on the current executive management team…only 2 out of 11 on the board of directors. In other words…they don’t run the company.
 
TheOldColonel said:
A free market always determines value.
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We shall all have to stand before God and justify a free market. Hedge fund managers might be a legal profession, but will they be looked on by God; in the same way as the parable of the rich man and Lazarus?
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You seem to be confusing corruption and dishonesty with good, oldfashioned business. No one will have to answer to God for having earned their wealth honestly. Indeed, some may have to answer for unjustly maligning and judging them, however. You will certainly find a number of wealthy but holy individuals mentioned in the Bible. Surely, God did not call them and work through them only to later condemn them.

The proverbial rich man in the Gosepl you reference was not condemned for his wealth. He was condemned for his lack of charity. Unfortunately, even a poor man can fall into this sin. For we all have the basic choice of choosing from among three dispositions towards others: love, hate, or indifference.
 
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I would say that paying a higher wage can be a form of charity. Choosing to hire someone who might not otherwise have much chance can also be. In fact it may be better to choose a higher wage than to give to charity that your employees are using to help meet their needs.
 
TheOldColonel said:
For we all have the basic choice of choosing from among three dispositions towards others: love, hate, or indifference.
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Our indifference to suffering is possibly the worst choice. Around 1.3 Billion people live on less than $1.25 per day. I doubt if there are many people in the US that would work for $1.25 per hour, let alone $1.25 per day.

A global just wage should take this into account.
 
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I believe your heart is in the right place, however, some of your posts are short on specifics.

How would you implement a global just wage?

You use the term ‘wage’, so I assume this is only for working people, or will you include some kind of stipend for non-working people?

Does it “simply” involve raising all wages that are below your definition of “just”, or does it also involve lower some of those that are above that wage?
 
Indeed. But true charity cannot be mandated. It must be freely chosen.
 
To be fair, the origin of this thread was what we ought to do as Catholics, not what is legally mandatory.

Charity can most definitely be mandated by moral law.
 
Yet, charity cannot be accomplished without free choice. Indeed, love is free. Not even God can make others love.
 
KMC said:
How would you implement a global just wage?
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By searching for the right question.

The thread title just asks, what is a just wage? But does this mean a just wage for teachers, toilet cleaners, Americans, or a global wage that God would recognize as just?

Countries like the UK have a benefit system, it recognises that some people need financial help. This is not just a UK problem, it is a global problem, and it is not considered charity.

The right question for a just wage, must take into account everyone on Earth who is working.
 
A just wage is like an ideal state, it is ever elusive, there is always room to come to a better understanding of it as it is a sale and purchase between two falible entities. It begins with the amount that a person is willing to sell their labor for. This beginning is flawed as it is influenced by many factors including such things as how desperate a person is for money or how willing a person is to use the other persons desperation.

One thing is for sure, a minimum wage across all markets is an unjust intrusion into people’s lives simply to make other people feel good.
 
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EXdrinker said:
One thing is for sure, a minimum wage across all markets is an unjust intrusion into people’s lives simply to make other people feel good.
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I would agree with you; but thousands of children die every single day from grinding poverty, preventable disease and starvation.

If they are desperate and poor, we can offer them a pittance and they will have to accept, otherwise we can turn to another group of desperate and poor people. There are always poor people who are blackmailed into accepting a pittance.
 
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